From: SoVaNow.com
By Tom McLaughlin, News & Record
An IRS investigator has told a federal judge there is “probable cause” to believe former cigarette executive Kathy Farley was involved in tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering as president of Firebird Manufacturing LLC and Cherokee Tobacco, both based in South Boston.
IRS Special Agent Robert Martens detailed alleged schemes by Farley to falsify records and avoid payment of excise taxes on the sale of cigarettes in a 24-page filing submitted in August 2013 in U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia, in Roanoke.
Martens’ request for a search warrant and supporting affidavit were filed in court one day before agents with the IRS and USDA Office of the Inspector General raided the corporate offices of the South Boston tobacco companies on Bill Tuck Highway.
The search warrant and affidavit were unsealed this Tuesday in Roanoke, nearly a year after the search took place in South Boston. Farley was president of both Cherokee and Firebird at the time of the Aug. 22 raid; her employment there ended around the beginning of this year.
